Sanity Returns!... And then departs again

My, my, my... how time flies when you've got a real job. Ok, so it's just an internship, but whatevs... Last time I blogged I was raving about my birfday and how surprisingly good my day was. But let me tell you, things have gotten SO much better since then!

The weekend after my birthday, I drove to Appleturkey and got to spend a couple days with Mum, Dad and Grandma! When I rolled up to the house late Friday night (June 5th), I was greeted with a HUGE birthday cake!


Grandma made me a big yellow birthday cake with chocolate frosting (my favorite!) and even put polka-dots on the sides in Meghan's honor! Is she the best grandma in the world or WHAT?! I got to go to the temple with her and the parentals, out to dinner with Aunt Dianne and Uncle Ken, and even got my car windows tinted! (They look phat...)

After spending my first week in Tucson all alone, it was a much-needed refresher and spending time with the the fam was exactly what I needed.

That said, (Mum, Dad and Grandma, please take no offense at this) but last weekend (June 11-14) was even better! Why?

Because THIS girl came to see me!


Yep, that's right! She came down with Lance, Candy, Kenz and Cate and spent the weekend with me! Megs spent the day at the pool (and got really burned) while I was at work, and then we part-ayed all weekend! We got to go up to Pheonix so I could meet some of Megs' cousins, and so Megs could meet Stacey and the girls! It was great!

Nevermind of course the fact that I forgot a tie and went to church open-collared. Yeah, it was awkward.

We even got to go to the Diamondbacks game Saturday night!


The stadium was awesome and the game was fun, but the best part was just being with the wifey, eventhough I made her mad by getting my Dr. Pepper confiscated upon entering the ballpark... :)

Sunday night was a sad moment however, because Megs had to get back up to Utah and I had work at GEICO Monday morning as well. And so, I'm alone once again.

This last week at work has been crazy. On Thursday, we attended a meeting for newly-hired employees and got to meet the CEO, Tony Nicely!!!!


He is an amazing speaker and it was really neat to talk with him for a few minutes. Later that day, he actually walked-in on one of our meetings! Whodathunkit.... the CEO coming into our meeting! It was a great day.

I went golfing Saturday (and almost died of heat stroke), and then today we gave our first "official" presentation, based on our previous two weeks. It went well, and they gave us Olive Garden for lunch to celebrate!

As you can see, it's full-on here in Tucson and things are heating up, along with the weather! Oh, and one last thing... as a congratulations for our presentation today, the director of claims at the office gave us all tickets to the pool section for the Diamondbacks game up in Phoenix tomorrow! So, I'll apologize in advance if I don't answer my phone tomorrow night; I'll be here...

and here!


Thanks for reading! I'll have updates on the pool temp after the game! :)

I miss you Megs!

Birthdays... So Easy, A Caveman Can Do It.

Happy Birfday to me! It wasn't the greatest birthday I've ever had... my wife and mom weren't there, so automatically it can't be in the discussion for greatest ever. That said, it was pretty darn good.

I called Megs at midnight last night to sing "Happy Birthday" to her, and she seemed to enjoy it... or at least that's what I translated the snoring to be. Then she called me a few hours later to sing to me as I woke up!

I wasn't sure as to how my day would go, but I knew things were looking up when I got to work and found my cubicle like this!

Birthday Cubicle!

My supervisor got in early this morning and decorated my desk with banners and everything (the green & gold ribbon was on purpose BTW. She knows I'm a Packer fan and needless to say, I was very impressed), and even dropped off a pink box full of DONUTS! They were the perfect way to start my day!

The presentations we were meant to do this morning were rescheduled, so that was a bit frustrating, but we spent the rest of the day going through applications with the hiring team and I really enjoyed learning how GEICO recruits employees, along with the characteristics and experience that they look for in candidates.

My internship has been nothing short of awesome so far. Everyone is very open and helpful, and the projects that we'll be working on look to be exciting, and give me an opportunity to give meaningful feedback and contribute to the office here. We've spent a lot of time in various training situations (workplace policies, benefits, etc.) but we've had opportunities to meet most of the managers and directors of the office here and even the Assistant VP (The Boss).

My fellow interns are really great people as well. My roommate Cody is from the University of Wisconsin and wished me "Happy Birthday" about 100 times today. He's a great guy and we seem to get along just fine.

Cody & Kody

The other two interns are really nice girls from the University of Arizona here in Tucson, and Ashland University in Ohio. All three of the other interns are bright and we seem to work well together.

After coming home tonight, I made myself a true feast: chicken alfredo pasta with a garden salad, topped off with "lots o' pulp" orange juice. I'm no fine cuisinier, but I must say, it was hecka good.

Proof of my amazing cooking exploits

And lastly, I of course can't forget... Megs gave me one present to bring down to Tucson, and made me PROMISE not to open until today.

What is it might you ask?

Well, it's written and directed by my favorite actor ever.

Tom Hanks.

And it's a movie that recently, I have been quoting ever-more frequently.

"Off he goes to write his new hit song, Alone In My Principles."

"What are you crazy?! A man in a really nice camper wants to put our song on the radio! Gimme a pen, I'm signin', you're sig- we're all signing!"

"Oh I'm not wit 'dese fellas. I've got a pig in competition over in the livestock pavilion, and I'm gonna WIN that blue ribbon!"

"Well, I like Wisconsin..."

Yep, you guessed it.

That Thing You Do!

So as the clock approaches midnight and the end of yet another June 4th draws nigh... thanks to all who made my birthday special, even though those who are most special to me are far away.

Happy Birthday Megs! I Love You!

Birthday! Birthday!

Birthdays are so nice, in our family we do them twice! But first...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGS!

How can you not fall in love with this girl? How do I love thee? Oh let me count the ways...

I hope you have a fantastic birthday sweetheart! I'm SO sorry that I'm not there with you to celebrate our birthday together, I want to be there with you (or you here with me) SO BAD!

Make sure you take lots of pictures, eat lots of cake and ice cream, and...

Check in my sock drawer before you leave for work in the morning! (But you can only open half of it before work and you must save the other half for after you come home, so choose wisely)

Happy Birthday Wife! I Love You!

Make a wish Megs! I love you!

We must also recognize my fabulous Aunt Dianne, who rounds out our "Birthday Trifecta"! She is amazing and I'm looking forward to seeing her soon! *wink *wink

Oh yeah, I heard it's also some kid's birthday down in southern AZ too... whatevs.

PS. To all those who have been waiting on the edge of their seats for the internship blog that never came... it's coming. This week has been NUTS and I've got a big presentation to do tomorrow morning (Happy B-day, right), but tomorrow- I promise.